An Intervention Uchiha Style
by Lojuba
Summary: Sasuke meant well, he really did. It was a new thing he was trying out and it decidedly wasn't working for him. This story is about failed time travel attempts, dragging your friends down with you and love. It's mostly the first two, tbh. But it's really just supposed to make you laugh. Well, there's a tiny bit of angst somewhere in there or maybe a lot.


**An Intervention.**

**Uchiha Style.**

_In other words: Effective, yet gruesome meddling. _

_Sasuke meant well, he really did. It was a new thing he was trying out and it decidedly wasn't working for him. This story is about failed time travel attempts, dragging your friends down with you and love. It's mostly the first two, tbh. But it's really just supposed to make you laugh. Well, there's a tiny bit of angst somewhere in there or maybe a lot._

**AN:**

**I wrote this for fun. Don't take it too seriously. I'm not fluent in English, so a few mistakes are a given. Leave a review, if you like.**

**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto.**

'Would you mind repeating that for me again?' Asked the Hokage in exasperated disbelief.

'Hn.'

'Sasuke.' Naruko growled.

'I thought I had found the ultimate Jutsu.'

'Yes. We already talked about that.' The Hokage nodded along.

'It was supposed to send our consciousness back in time to merge with our younger versions.'

There was a long pause before Naruko's deceptively calm voice came through.

'I can't believe you. Why would you send me back, too?'

Sasuke fell silent again.

'And where did you find this Jutsu?' Sarutobi asked.

'In Orochimaru's headquarters.' Sasuke said disinterested. He hadn't really looked at anyone since he came back, well except for Naruko, who had tried her utmost to ignore him completely only breaking the habit to snap at him.

'How did you get access to it?' asked the Hokage more than slightly perturbed.

'Yes, Sa-su-ke. Care to explain to the Hokage how you got information like that from Orochimaru?' Naruko asked with sadistic glee. That was the most she had said to him, yet. Well, if you ignored the angry yelling, when they'd landed, which he did.

He sighed and stared at the ceiling, before he finally focused on the Hokage again.

'Hn.'

Naruko stared at him again. She was cute when she got angry, he thought.

'Naruko, would you care to explain, what happened?'

'I'd rather not.' She said stubbornly.

She still had a bone to pick with Sarutobi. The Hokage may have thought he'd been acting in everyone's best interest, but this was the man that had single handedly ruined her childhood and kept every information on who she really was away from her.

The Hokage stared at the both of them. 'It wasn't a question.'

'It's awfully sexist to expect the woman to explain away the man's actions, don't you think? How am I supposed to even try and understand the clusterfuck that is this situation? I didn't even know he was planning to do this. Never mind, taking me with him.'

'It wasn't supposed to work this way.'

'Explain to us, how this should have worked out.' The Hokage said patiently.

'We were supposed to start over. Both of us. You deserved to start fresh, too. After everything this village has done to you.' Sasuke grunted, looking at Naruko.

She almost screamed in exasperation, but she knew that that wouldn't do. So, she swallowed down her anger and whispered in calm condescendence 'What about what you did to me? What about what you are doing right now?'

Sarutobi stared at the two of them.

Sasuke decided that between the questions asked, Sarutobi's was the easiest to answer.

'I was marked with Orochimaru's cursed seal during the Chunin exams. After a while and a lot of pushing from Kabuto, a traitor, I decided to leave the village.

Orochimaru made sure I was powerful, so when my time with him was up, I successfully killed him and Itachi. After that Madara tried to win me over for his cause, by telling me what Itachi's orders were.' Sarutobi flinched back at that, while Sasuke stared at him and Naruko shook her head in disappointment.

'I left Madara, understanding that everything Itachi had ever done was for the Leave and for my future here. Naruko and I killed Danzo, who at that point, had betrayed the leave more times than every traitor of Konoha combined, together.'

He paused for a moment, to let that sink in.

'I decided I wanted to start new. Itachi didn't deserve death. Naruko didn't deserve to be treated the way she had been treated. Our bond was never supposed to break.' He finished.

Sarutobi looked shocked at the two of them.

'I failed you.' He finally admitted. Sighing deeply.

'And not just us.' Sasuke said.

'You doomed our entire generation, by not going after Orochimaru, by protecting Danzo, by not putting the council in their place, by letting the villagers discriminate against Naruko.' Sasuke leaked killing intent. For the first time since they got here.

Naruko wasn't really part of this conversation anymore. After hearing of Sasuke's stellar plan for her new start at life, she muttered tiredly.

'I was the next in line for Hokage. I would have married Neiji.' Sasuke twitched at that. 'We would have had a bunch of beautiful kids.' Sasuke hands, tightened dangerously around his armrests. 'I finally had the villager's respect and everything.' Naruko groaned.

'Way to ruin my life, Jerkface.'

Sasuke stared at her. 'Well, Naru. I'm so sorry I thought I could do you one better.'

Naruko ignored him.

Sarutobi cleared his throat. 'You won't kill Danzo or Orochimaru.' He finally said.

Naruko had obviously returned to the conversation, because she now stared at him in disbelief.

'I will take care of it myself.' Sasuke looked at the man in front of him.

'Trust me, you'll need us. Danzo's arm is filled with Sharingan. Orochimaru's design and the last time you tried to take on Orochimaru, he killed you.'

The Hokage paled slightly.

'Then you will accompany me.' He allowed.

Naruko groaned. 'Wait before you go and kill people. Are you sure you can't just… send us back?'

The Hokage heaved a deep sigh. 'I'm sorry, Naruko. This was one of Orochimaru's experimental seals. It's not finished and the way it works may very well differ upon each use. We can't formulate a concrete release for something like that. If we were to guess what the reversal would be and act upon it, we could eradicate your existence completely.'

Naruko stared at Sasuke, who in typical Uchiha fashion hid his emotions completely.

'So, what do we do about this?'

'Well, after everything you've told me. I'd say you are Jounin?'

'Yes.' Naruko and Sasuke immediately said. No reason, for them to fucking do the Chunin exams all over again.

The Hokage nodded. 'You carry the Kyuubi?'

'Yes.'

'I will have to check Naruto's seal, but I'm guessing you'll have assimilated the 'other' Kyuubi, upon arrival.'

'He's currently a little out of it, because of the time travel. When he's better I'll let you know.' Naruko mumbled.

The Hokage stared at her. Of course, she was on friendly terms with the embodiment of chaos and destruction.

'You are eighteen?' He asked.

'Seventeen.' Sasuke corrected.

'Sure, sure.' Sarutobi grumbled.

'Sasuke you're going to pose as Shisui's younger brother, Isamu Uchiha, who had been sent away after Shisui's dead. Naruko you're Kushina's long lost niece, currently searching for the last members of the Uzumaki clan. You two met on your way to Konoha and traveled here together. You had formal training at some point in your life. For now, you'll live in the Uchiha district, away from prying eyes. Naruko, you may keep your name. l'll sent Naruto to you, soon. You may share whatever you deem appropriate with him and Sasuke as well, I'll see to it that he knows that he can move there, too, if you're up for that.'

Naruko nodded, while the Uchiha twitched in his seat.

'I'll let you know when we go after Danzo. I have to inform the clan heads first, we'll also have to vote on the council.' The old man finished. He didn't finish the two very determined looks that told him, it wouldn't matter what the council had to say. Danzo and the elders would die. Either officially approved or not.

'You may take your leave now.' He said tiredly.

Naruko was out of the window in a heartbeat, with Sasuke hot on her heels.

* * *

**Earlier that same day.**

Three Genin hid behind their teacher, who stared angrily at the two adults that were obviously caught in a weird stand-off. The man tried to evade the woman, who went in for the kill, while repeatedly asking 'What the fuck did you do?'

'Who are you?' Kakashi called out to them. They were blocking the road back to the village and his Genin weren't experienced enough to evade the kind of destruction the two could potentially unleash.

The woman, who looked so much like Kushina, stared back at him for a second before she slapped the older man across the face.

The man, who stared at the four in horror, didn't evade and thus crashed into the tree line.

Before they could even begin to assess the damage, the guy barreled into the girl and pinned her against a tree.

'What the fuck, Naruko?' He said, eyes still wide in shock, which obviously made the red head lose it.

'You're what the fucking me? I'm what the fucking you, Jerkface.' She groaned exasperated. Shoving him away. She immediately got back into fighting stance. The young man activated his Sharingan, which made Sasuke gasp in surprise.

'Who are you?' Kakashi called out to them, letting a bit of his killing intent leak out, which went utterly unnoticed by the two in front of him. To be fair, it was underwhelming in comparison to what the young woman had unleashed.

'You ruined it.' The young man finally said.

'I ruined it.' The woman, Naruko, asked dryly.

'It's okay. We can still work around it.' The Uchiha finally said, almost calming.

The woman stared at him as if the man had just said the single most stupid thing she'd ever heard in her life, before she took a deep breath.

The man had no idea what was about to happen, when the Kushina look alike tackled him to the ground, sat on top off his chest and pulled her fist back.

Kakashi stared at the display, his Sharingan uncovered. 'Get in the trees!' He shouted and thankfully his Genin immediately complied.

'Tch.' was the last thing they heard, before the ground exploded and crumbled away. The woman had destroyed a huge part of the road with a single punch.

When the air cleared. You could suddenly see that the Sharingan-user, had slung his arms around the girl and pressed her against him, while pushing his hand on top of her mouth, to keep her from shouting.

He stared at the group in front of him, his Sharingan still activated and the struggling woman still in his arms, he said.

'I'm sorry we interrupted –' He flushed slightly, stared at the woman and screamed indignantly. 'Stop licking me!' The moment his countenance broke, she threw her head back and it connected with a sickening crunch to his nose. It was disgusting, but it did the deed, the man let go.

'I was trying to bite you!' The woman screamed back, kicked his legs out from under him, used the lilac rope, he had slung around his hips, to tie his arms to his body, grabbed him by the back of his shirt and shushined away with the words. 'You can explain this shit to the Hokage, Asshole.'

Well, damn.

'What the hell was that?' Naruto asked. 'He had eyes like you, didn't he?' He asked Sasuke. 'Kind of looked like you too…' 'Hn.' Sasuke muttered. Feeling deeply irritated. Who was this guy and how was that Kunoichi so strong? She had a killing intent like none he's ever felt before and he had felt Itachi's. Had it been directed at him, he would have been unable to move. The Uchiha had to have been strong, too, he mused.

Sakura stared at the place where she'd seen him. The guy that would be her back up husband, for Sasuke. He was so handsome and had such nice muscles. She felt the blood trickle down her nose. He had been so polite, too and he was older, much more mature. Obviously interested in pretty woman, when the red-haired beauty was anything to go by.

She sighed. A girl could dream.

Kakashi rushed them back to Konoha. He needed to see her again. The woman that had looked so much like Kushina. Her hair had been the same color, dark red and long, braided to the side. She'd worn a tight green, high neck top and a Kunoichi skirt, that ended mid-thigh, with some biker shorts underneath. Practical, yet feminine.

Her fingernails had been painted the same red as her hair and her eyes had been as blue as Minato's. He sighed.

He couldn't even look at a beautiful girl without seeing his dead teacher in her. He was truly lost on the road of life.

* * *

A young Sasuke stared at the man who had introduced himself as Isamu. 'Shisui's brother?' He asked again, staring at the man, that looked so much like himself.

Well that was, if he'd grow up an exhibitionist with a horrible fashion sense, if that weird purple ass-bow and the low-cut white shirt was anything to go by.

'Yes.' He nodded absentmindedly, staring after Naruko, who was fixing herself something in the kitchen.

'Never pegged you for a housewife.' Isamu sassed.

Naruko stared at him for a second before she took the plate with the food that had obviously been for him and threw it in the garbage, tableware included, all the while she was holding aggressive eye contact with the older man. 'Oops.' She smiled falsely and went out to the garden.

Sasuke stared after her. He knew that look. She was an avenger, a petty one, but one nonetheless. What she was avenging he didn't know, but the man in front of him had taken it from her.

He watched him again, trying to get anything from him that would tell him something.

'What did you do to her?' He finally asked.

'I tried saving her.' The older Uchiha said and for the first time he displayed an emotion, a real one, other than indifference.

'From what?'

'From herself.' He finally said.

Sasuke paused after that, thinking back on the battle he'd seen the older man lose, he said.

'She doesn't seem like she needs someone to save her.'

Isamu stared at his younger self and smiled. 'Naruko has never really had a lot of freedom in choosing what she wanted to do. I tried giving her that, but in the end, I took even more of her choices away from her.' He sighed and stood up tiredly.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he tried to understand what the older man wasn't telling him. Did Naruko have an arranged marriage? Did he sabotage her? He only knew one thing, taking away someone's choice was a horrible thing to do.

'Sometimes, we're destroyed by our own goals.' Isamu said thinking back on Itachi.

Sasuke stared at him. He had walked into the random house, because it had been the only one, where there were lights on and since he was the only one that was supposed to live in the district, he'd explored. He certainly hadn't expected this. Another Uchiha and his beautiful, but deadly, friend who hated said Uchiha.

He sighed.

That the two would live here wasn't something he wanted. He'd rather no one knew that he couldn't sleep and trained late at night, but if the Hokage ordered it, there was nothing he could do about it.

* * *

Later that night Naruko sat on the roof, feeling Isamu's presence she stared even harder at the moon.

'What was that all about?' She finally asked, feeling the restlessness she'd felt since she'd overheard Isamu's talk with his younger version.

Isamu smirked. 'What?'

'You know what.'

'It's why I included you into my Jutsu.' He said.

'You always said you wanted to be Hokage. We both know, you really wanted to be seen, acknowledged and respected.'

He paused carefully.

'Being Hokage… I just don't think you truly want that for yourself. We both have never seen Hiruzen out of the office. Since the academy.' He stopped again.

'So, this was supposed to be an intervention?' Naruko asked, irritated, but Isamu continued.

'You say you want to marry Neiji, but we both know, that you don't love him. Not in a way that matters. He's just persistent, isn't he?' He continued.

'I know what it's like to run blindly towards the finishing line, thinking you've accomplished what you needed to, only to realize that you destroyed a huge part of yourself in the process. I think, if the two of us had proper training and a real friendship from the beginning, we would have stopped to think about what it is we truly wanted. You didn't have that luxury and I didn't allow myself to have that luxury.'

He stepped down to where she was seated and brushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear.

'You never stopped running. Running from one catastrophe to another, trying to put out fires, you had no hand in making. Yet, somehow you were always expected to help squelch the flames.' He sighed.

'I wanted to give you a fair chance at life and I wanted to be a part of it.' He finally said. Pressing his fingertips against her forehead, in a gesture reminiscent of his older brother's.

She stared at him, eyes wide, mouth slightly agape. 'You truly wanted for us to merge with our younger selves, didn't you?'

'Yes.' He muttered, before he stopped. 'Did you ever want to be Hokage?' He finally asked. She watched him carefully. 'I wanted to be Hokage in the way you wanted to kill your brother. We both needed it for the same reason Gaara killed for.'

She paused for a second, before she continued, voice almost breaking.

'To validate our existence.'

Sasuke stared at her. He had underestimated her once and never repeated that mistake again. She'd always been this way. Of course, she knew what they were doing. What they were chasing and what they were losing in the process.

He smiled down at her, while she looked up at him, gaze unreadable.

'If you play with my life like this again, Sasuke Uchiha, I will kill you.' She finally whispered.

He knew she would.

'Maybe you really did do me a favor with all of this. Maybe you didn't. It doesn't matter anymore. What matters is what's going to happen from here on out. I might not know what the fuck I'm doing in this life, but that's my concern, not yours. I'll make my mistakes and I'll learn from them, like everyone else. Don't presume to know who I am and what I need.'

She slowly stood up and pushed away from him.

Walking back to her room, she thought about everything that had happened.

He had been right in some ways and very wrong in others. She'd known all along what she was doing and why she was doing it and she had kept going either way. There were things in life that were scarier than running from emergency to emergency.

Stagnation. Doing nothing. Stopping.

Thinking about the hypocrisy of it all. Realizing where one stands, reflecting on it.

Dark Naruko hadn't been wrong. She'd been as much a part of her as everything else that made her Naruko was.

She'd craved and wanted things and had reacted badly to not receiving them. She'd compared herself to others and had felt bitter about what she'd realized in the process.

Dark Naruko was as much part of her, as light Naruko and accepting that had been the real challenge at that waterfall. It wasn't a fight for dominance. It was a fight for recognition. 'See me. Feel me. Stop repressing me. Stop fearing me. Stop hiding from me. Stop being ashamed of me.'

Naruko knew that she wasn't happy. Yet it never mattered, not to her anyway. She had spent all her life chasing some kind of normalcy. It seemed a waste to just let that go and start all over again. Apparently Sasuke had felt differently.

Sleep didn't come easy that night. She tossed and turned and remembered and stressed herself out.

She knew that she'd be exhausted by the time she woke up, more so than she'd been the night before.

Sasuke might think she was clueless, but she knew why she was here.

She knew why he had come back and why he'd always come back to her or in this case, drag her down with him.

He loved her.

He had loved her since she'd been twelve years old and beaten him at Taijutsu through sheer endurance and willpower.

He'd loved her, when he'd turned his back to Konoha.

He'd loved her when she had hunted him down through the nations. Chasing after him, knowing he wouldn't come back until he was ready. But not able to let him go, yet.

He'd loved her when she'd given up on wanting him, given up the idea of needing someone who refused to be there for her.

He'd loved, when she'd accepted Neiji's offer to take her out on a date.

He'd loved her when she'd fought against Pain.

He'd loved her when he killed Itachi.

He'd loved her when he came back and saw her and Neiji walk through the streets of Konoha holding hands.

She'd loved him, too.

A long time ago.

* * *

Sasuke hadn't slept at all. He still had trouble reacting to the name Isamu and was happy that no one had called out to him, until this point.

He also thought a lot about Naruko. He groaned. He was guilt tripping himself for what he had done to her.

She'd have to see them all again. Tsunade, Jiraiya, Shizune, their class mates, Hinata. Hinata would be hard on her. She'd been her best friend, before she had died in battle.

He had known that she'd loved him for a long time. He had known that he loved her for as long as he could remember. It was a selfish kind of love, always had been. Possessive in its own right. He wasn't capable of anything else. For her he tried to be, but then he ended up doing things like this.

He stared out of the window. They had both been broken down, over the course of their young life's.

It was now on them to put the pieces back together.

* * *

One house further down the road, a much younger Sasuke stared bleary eyed at Naruko.

The young woman must have broken into his house, to make breakfast?

It was barely eight o'clock and she was dressed in casual clothing, she must have picked up earlier that day.

He tried not to think too much about how those tight black kunoichi leggings made him feel. On top she wore a black fitted top with spaghetti straps, and she'd wrapped a clearly oversized black sweater around her waist. She'd probably realized that it was much too hot for that in the house.

But neither her attire, nor her presence baffled him as much as the selection of breakfast food that sat before him.

She'd made tomato onigiri with some grilled salmon on the side and an eggroll, for each of them. Laid out before him was his absolute favorite breakfast food.

He looked at it for a while, watching her fumble with the tea, before she sat down next to him.

His eyebrow twitched, when she nodded towards him and started eating her food. Didn't look like he'd get an explanation. Then he remembered that the blonde had prepared a plate for Isamu, yesterday, too, even though she had no intention of sharing the food. His lip twitched. The girl clearly couldn't cook for just one person without making too much and she was obviously still feeling too petty to share with her companion.

A few moments later a bleary-eyed Isamu walked through his front door like he owned the place. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

'Naru.'

She ignored him.

'Naru, stop making my favorite food, when you're not going to share it with me.'

She took a sip from her tee and looked out at the impeccably kept Zen garden.

'Naruko.' Isamu growled.

Sasuke started to feel annoyed. 'What?' He asked, in her stead, surprising not only Naruko but also Isamu.

The older Uchiha smirked at him knowingly, before his eyes slowly strayed over to Naruko again.

'What are you wearing?' He asked, after a few moments.

'That's none of your business.' She said, nonplussed, while she bit languidly into a tomato onigiri. 'Tomato Onigiri are the best, aren't they Sasuke?' She asked smiling towards him.

'Hn.' He mumbled. Not wanting to get dragged into their fight. Also not wanting to admit that her Onigiri, were in fact the best ones he's ever had.

'Na-ru-ko.' Isamu ground out.

'What?' She groaned unnerved.

'You can't just walk around like that.'

'If I chose to walk out of here butt naked, it still wouldn't be any of your business.'

Sasuke chocked on his tea and Isamu's Sharingan activated in response.

'Honestly? You might as well be butt naked. Are you even wearing a bra?'

Sasuke stared at the older man in disbelief.

He'd hated his fair share of woman in his short life and he'd never been one to reject them politely. However, even he knew not to be that much of an idiot.

Naruko took another bite of her Onigiri, stood up and walked slowly to the garbage disposal, throwing the remaining food and the plate into it, with little regard for Sasuke's tableware.

She turned to the door, and threw one last, 'Stop looking, if it's bothering you so much.' over her shoulder, before she was gone.

Isamu strode over to the breakfast table and stared at Sasuke.

'Are you going to finish that?' He asked obviously trying and failing to keep his mask of indifference.

A sadistic grin spread across Sasuke's face. He originally hadn't planned on finishing it, because he wasn't used to eating so much so early, anyomre. But now, that he knew that this guy wanted it, he'd make damn sure to eat and appreciate every last piece of it.

Isamu stared at him for a second before he weirdly said, 'I'm such an asshole.' and left.

Sasuke wasn't sure why, but he knew that it was true. Isamu just seemed like that kind of person.

When he arrived for training later, then usual and with a slight tummy ache, he knew that he'd make it his life mission not be anything like that idiot.

Not an hour later said asshole stood before him emanating sadistic glee. 'We'll train your Sharingan today.' He said, smiling dangerously.

Sasuke stared from Isamu to Kakashi, with a betrayed expression. His teacher sighed. 'The Hokage recommended the two help us out.' He finally said. 'Since you are both related to them, they have a right to oversee your training.' He said tiredly, his attention obviously waning.

The reason for that, stood in front of a bright-eyed Naruto. 'You're my cousin?' He exclaimed loud and brash, as ever.

Naruko smiled and radiated bright happiness. 'I am and I have some really cool techniques, I'd like to show you!' She promised and Sasuke hated the Loser in that moment. He wanted to learn new techniques, too. Sighing he turned back to his clansman, who was radiating killing intent, while staring at Kakashi.

'Kakashi?'

'Yes.' The older man, looked back to them, evidently surprised by his own lack of focus.

'I could show you some new tricks too?'

Kakashi was about to agree, when he heard his most troublesome student, laugh. Bright and real. His head swiveled back to the red-haired beauty that was currently trying to muffle her own laughter.

'Yeah.' Isamu said, smiling falsely. 'You both definitely need more training. I'll show you the true power of the Sharingan.' He promised darkly.

Sasuke gulped, while Kakashi was still distracted. His teacher really needed to stop staring at Naruko, Isamu was obviously very possessive of his companion.

* * *

Naruto couldn't believe it.

His cousin was the best. The first thing she'd done, was take him out to eat Ramen and ask him to tell her about himself.

After they were done, she asked him to show her, where he lived. What followed was a forced upon cleaning session, that might as well have been training.

She'd made him walk the walls of his apartment up and down, while scrubbing them down.

Had him walk along the outside of his apartment building when making him take out the trash and sorted his clothes out with him.

'I'm not telling you that you can't wear orange in your free time. I'm also not telling you to get rid of your jumpsuits, I personally find them really freaking cool, to be honest. But, dude, you have to purchase a few new clothes, to wear on missions. There's no way an experienced ninja won't notice you in that color and I'd hate for you to get hurt, because of something like this.' She elaborated.

He stared at her, with big eyes. 'Is it really all that dangerous? The pervy sage wears really weird stuff, too and he's a spy!'

'He might be a pervert, but he is still one of the three Sannin, he has Hokage level strength as his base level and managed to build upon that, his Toad Sage ability. I get why you don't take him seriously, but nobody cares what he wears when he's out there, because he's the most dangerous one around.'

Naruto stared at her wide eyed.

'Tell you what, your shopping is completely on me.' Naruko promised. 'Besides, you could make yourself a promise?'

'What kind of promise?'

'You could promise yourself, that you'll wear orange again, when you succeeded. When you take the hat.' She said smiling at him.

'You think I can do it.' He asked, wide eyed.

'I don't think so, I know so. She promised, smiling.

In the next moment she was tackled into the hug that would end all hugs. Her past self wasn't touch starved, exactly, but he wasn't far from it to be honest.

She'd make sure to mess up his hair and give him friendly nudges, to let him know that she wasn't shying away from him and that initiating contact was alright.

He laughed. 'I promise. No more orange, 'til I get the hat! You better believe it!' He said grinning wickedly.

She laughed.

Shopping with Naruto was an exercise in self-restraint. Having those glances directed at herself was one thing, but witnessing it being done from an outsider's perspective was mind numbingly infuriating.

She used the opportunity to shop a little for herself, too and surprisingly the two of them had fun, doing so. They were both well versed in ignoring idiots, after all.

After she'd gotten him a few new outfits, they passed by a weapon store. So, she decided to stock up for the both of them. Get Naruto started on Fuinjutsu early.

'You don't have to buy all this stuff for me.' Naruto whispered. Not really knowing how he should take it. If she does all that, she may not do it more often, because it's too much work, he thought panicked.

'I know, I don't have to. Don't stress yourself out about it. I was given a small stipend to situate myself, but I'm going to start working soon, so who cares? You don't need to worry about that stuff. We need to get some groceries.'

'We do?'

'Hmm. I'm not a huge fan of the Uchiha at the moment so, I'm crashing on your couch.'

He stared at her. 'For real?'

'For super real.'

'Cool.'

She laughed. 'Don't be to happy. Means you'll be learning how to cook.'

He smiled again. He'd been surprisingly calm this whole afternoon. Well, he'd been calm ever since he'd met her. She focused completely on him, when she was talking to him. She didn't care about what other people said and she didn't care if he was the best at the stuff he did.

She seemed to simply care about him, and his life and she genuinely wanted to be part of it.

Naruto had been kind of overwhelmed at first. He didn't have to compete for attention. He didn't have to yell to be noticed.

* * *

Sasuke and Kakashi both hated Isamu, with a passion.

The older Uchiha had dragged them through hell and back. Their whole bodies were throbbing, their chakra was exhausted, their eyes were throbbing, it was all too much.

Sasuke had only been able to keep up for half an hour before he had to lay down at the side of the training field.

Kakashi, had been so heavily engaged in combat, that he couldn't quite call for a break. The guy had massive amounts of chakra and the stamina to pull through.

What an asshole, Kakashi thought, tiredly, after he'd dragged himself back to his apartment.

* * *

It had been fun to torture his past self and Kakashi. It was always good to show his younger self that he'd be able to take his current teacher without much trouble. It would make him think twice before he left the village for tutelage now.

He'd also hated how his former teacher stared at Naruko. Didn't he understand how wrong it was? Wasn't he like five years older than them?

When Naruko didn't come home, he didn't have to think twice about it. He searched for her, leaving his chakra exhausted former self on the floor, next to a plain bowl of rice, an emergency ration, a bucket and a glass of water. He knew himself. Sasuke Uchiha was a survivor. A spoilt, angry and arrogant survivor, but a survivor nonetheless.


End file.
